The Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (for short, Ioffe Institute, ) is one of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

's largest

research center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentric ...

s specialized in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

and technology. The institute was established in 1918 in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

(now St. Petersburg) and run for several decades by

Abram Ioffe Abram Fedorovich Ioffe ( rus, Абра́м Фёдорович Ио́ффе, p=ɐˈbram ˈfʲɵdərəvʲɪtɕ ɪˈofɛ; – 14 October 1960) was a prominent Soviet Union, Soviet physicist. He received the USSR State Prize, Stalin Prize (1942), the ...

. The institute is a member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. As of June 2024 the Ioffe Institute employed 1977 individuals including both scientific and non-scientific staff.

Present structure of the institute

As of 2019, the Ioffe institute employed about 1500 people, around 1000 of whom were scientific researchers (including 560 with a PhD degree and 250 with a

Doktor Nauk A Doctor of Sciences, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; ; ; ; is a higher doctoral degree in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and many Commonwealth of Independent States countries. One of the prerequisites of receiving a Doctor of Science ...

degree). Most of the research staff members are top graduates of the St. Petersburg (former Leningrad) universities. From 2013 until mid-May 2018 the Ioffe institute was under formal jurisdiction of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FASO Russia), now it is under jurisdiction of the established in May 2018 Ministry of Science and Higher Education, like all other institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The institute is organized into five divisions: * Center for Nano-Heterostructure Physics * Solid State Electronics *

Solid State Physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as solid-state chemistry, quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state p ...

Plasma Physics Plasma () is a state of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including th ...

, Atomic Physics and

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

* Physics of

Dielectrics In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an electrical insulator that can be polarised by an applied electric field. When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the materia ...

and

Semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

s Each of the divisions includes several laboratories. The institute has its own graduate school and a scientific council. There exists an intensive collaboration with the research and industrial establishments in Russia and worldwide. The institute publishes five scientific journals: ''Semiconductors'' (), ''Physics of the Solid State'' (), ''Optics and Spectroscopy'' (), and ''Technical Physics'' (journal + letters) ()).

Founding of the institute

The foundation date of the Ioffe Institute is September 23, 1918 – the day of signing the decree on the establishment of the physical and technical department in the (established in March of the same year) State Roentgenological and Radiological Institute in

. Despite tremendous economic problems after the World War I and the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

(1917), the development of science was one of the priorities of the new Communist government. The abovementioned department was headed by A. F. Ioffe. In 1922, on its basis, the State Physicotechnical Radiology Institute has emerged. After several reorganizations and renaming, since 1933, the institute became “Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute”. The form “Physicotechnical” is a Russian variant for “Physical & Technical”. Three decades later, in the 1960s, the word “Ioffe” was added to the institute name, in honor of the first director. Since 1939, the institute has been a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (since 1991 – of the Russian Academy of Sciences). In 1967, it was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

. These details were reflected in the institute name, especially in Russian. Also now, for historical reasons, there remained the entrance plaque (s. photo): “Academy of Sciences of the USSR, A. F. Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, awarded the Order of Lenin” (). Presently, in English texts, for example in scientific papers, the name “ �. F.Ioffe hysical-TechnicalInstitute f the Russian Academy of Sciences�� is used (the optional fragments are enclosed in square brackets).

Main scientific achievements

The Ioffe Institute is considered the cradle of Soviet physics. Such outstanding scientists as L. D. Landau, P. L. Kapitsa started their career here, many physicists — among them Y. B. Zeldovich, I. V. Kurchatov, I. E. Tamm — have worked at the institute for some time. The research of the institute covers nearly all fields of the contemporary physics, including the solid-state, semiconductors, quantum electronics, astrophysics, plasma, fluid dynamics, cosmology, nuclear synthesis. More than 100 employees of the institute were recognized by awarding the highest prizes and orders of the Soviet Union and of Russia – in particular the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR, State Prizes of Russia, Government prizes and special prizes of the Soviet/Russian Academy of Sciences. Twice, the Nobel Prize was awarded for the works performed at the Ioffe Institute. In 1956, academician N. N. Semyonov (together with C. N. Hinshelwood) got the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

for a discovery and study of

chain reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that sys ...

s: the works were made and published in 1927, when N. N. Semyonov was a staff member of the institute. In 2000, Zh. I. Alferov, director of the Ioffe Institute at that time, became a Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (together with H. Kroemer and J. Kilby) for the development of semiconductor heterostructures for high-speed optoelectronics. The Ioffe Institute has played a central role in the development of photovoltaic solar power in Russia and internationally, and thus in the development of renewable energy.

Buildings

The main building of the Ioffe Institute (s. photo at the top of the article and the very left part of the photo below) is located at Polytechnicheskaya Street, 26. It was built in a

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

style in 1912–1916 by the architect G. D. Grimm and served as "a refuge for the elderly needy hereditary noblemen in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs' house" at the forty-prized ones, on the second floor they arranged Church (now the Small Assembly Hall of the institute). KurchatovStr

In 1920 the building was adapted to the institute by the design of civil engineers P. I. Sidorov and Yu. V. Bilinsky. The ceremonial transfer of the building to the institute took place on February 4, 1923. Until 1953, the apartment of A. F. Ioffe was located in the same building.Алфёров Ж. И. Папа Иоффе и его «детский сад» (Лекция из цикла «Наука и культура XXI века», АФТУ, 10 октября 2008 года) // Наука и культура: избранные лекции / Сост. Ю. В. Трушин. — СПб: БАН, 2009. — С. 127—167. — 208 с. — In the years 1927–1928 there appeared a yard part, and in 1970 the building was reconstructed and expanded along Kurchatov Street. Beyond this historical building, a more modern building on another side of the Kurchatov Street (the right part of the photo) also belongs to the Ioffe Institute. It was constructed in the 1970s. Furthermore, some laboratories of the Ioffe Institute are placed in Shuvalovo, a north-west outskirts of St. Petersburg. In front of the main facade are the busts of

(sculptor G. D. Glickman, 1964) and Boris Konstantinov (sculptor Mikhail Anikushin, 1975). On either side of the main entrance are memorial plaques: to the left of the entrance are S. N. Zhurkov, Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Anatoly Alexandrov,

Yakov Frenkel __NOTOC__ Yakov Il'ich Frenkel (; 10 February 1894 – 23 January 1952) was a Soviet physicist renowned for his works in the field of condensed-matter physics. He is also known as Jacob Frenkel, frequently using the name J. Frenkel in publicati ...

, and ; right of the entrance -

Igor Kurchatov Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (; 12 January 1903 – 7 February 1960), was a Soviet physicist who played a central role in organizing and directing the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons, and has been referred to as "father of the Russian ...

, B. P. Konstantinov,

Nikolay Semyonov Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov , sometimes Semenov, Semionov or Semenoff (; – 25 September 1986) was a Soviet physicist and chemist. Semyonov was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the mechanism of chemical transformat ...

Directors of the institute

Before 1950 –

* 1950-1957 – A. P. Komar * 1957-1967 – Boris Konstantinov * 1967-1987 – Vladimir M. Tuchkevich * 1987-2003 –

Zhores Alferov Zhores Ivanovich Alferov ( rus, Жоре́с Ива́нович Алфёров, , ʐɐˈrɛs ɨˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ɐlˈfʲɵrəf}; ; 15 March 19301 March 2019) was a Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed significantly to the cr ...

* 2003-2017 – A. G. Zabrodskii * January–September, 2018 – Sergei V. Lebedev (acting) * Since October, 2018 – Sergei V. Ivanov (bis July 2019 acting, since August 2019 official)

Notable people associated with the institute

* Hasan Abdullayev * Anatoly Alexandrov *

Artem Alikhanian Artem Alikhanian (; ; 24 June 1908 – 25 February 1978) was a Soviet physicist of Armenian origin, one of the founders and first director of the Yerevan Physics Institute, a correspondent member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union ( ...

* Abraham Alikhanov * Arkady Aronov *

Lev Artsimovich Lev Andreyevich Artsimovich ( Russian: Лев Андреевич Арцимович, February 25, 1909 – March 1, 1973), also transliterated Arzimowitsch, was a Soviet physicist known for his contributions to the Tokamak— a device that produ ...

Matvei Bronstein Matvei Petrovich Bronstein (, – February 18, 1938) was a Soviet theoretical physicist, a pioneer of quantum gravity, author of works in astrophysics, semiconductors, quantum electrodynamics and cosmology, as well as of a number of books in pop ...

* Victor Bursian * Yuri Denisyuk * Edward Drobyshevski * Vladimir G. Dubrovskii * Alexei L. Efros *

Alexey Ekimov Alexey Ekimov or Aleksey Yekimov (; born 1945) is a Russian Solid-state physics, solid state physicist and a pioneer in nanomaterials research. He discovered the semiconductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots in 1981, while working at the Vavi ...

* Oleg Firsov *

Georgy Flyorov Georgii Nikolayevich Flyorov (also spelled Flerov, rus, Гео́ргий Никола́евич Флёров, p=gʲɪˈorgʲɪj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ ˈflʲɵrəf; 2 March 1913 – 19 November 1990) was a Soviet physicist who is known for h ...

Andrei Fursenko Andrei Aleksandrovich Fursenko ( rus, Андрей Александрович Фурсенко, , ɐnˈdrʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈfursʲɪnkə, links=y; born 17 July 1949) is a Russian politician, scientist and businessman. He has the fe ...

George Gamow George Gamow (sometimes Gammoff; born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov; ; 4 March 1904 – 19 August 1968) was a Soviet and American polymath, theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was an early advocate and developer of Georges Lemaître's Big Ba ...

* Igor Grekhov *

Vladimir Gribov Vladimir Naumovich Gribov (Russian Влади́мир Нау́мович Гри́бов; March 25, 1930August 13, 1997) was a prominent Russian theoretical physicist, who worked on high-energy physics, quantum field theory and the Regge theory o ...

Evgeni Gross Evgenii Fedorovich Gross (1897 – 1972) was a Soviet physicist working in optics and spectroscopy of condensed matter. He graduated from Leningrad University in 1924. He became a correspondent member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1946. ...

Pyotr Kapitsa Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa or Peter Kapitza (, ; – 8 April 1984) was a leading Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate, whose research focused on low-temperature physics. Biography Kapitsa was born in Kronstadt, Russian Empire, to the Bessar ...

Yulii Khariton Yulii Borisovich Khariton (; 27 February 1904 – 18 December 1996) was a Russian people, Russian physicist who was a leading scientist in the former Soviet atomic bomb project, Soviet program of nuclear weapons. Since the initiation of the So ...

* Boris Konstantinov * Yury Kovalchuk *

Georgii Kurdyumov Georgy Vyacheslavovich Kurdyumov (; 14 February 1902 – 6 July 1996) was a Soviet metallurgist and physicist. He went on to become one of the most famous metallurgist of his time in the Soviet Union. When the Institute of Solid State Physics ...

Lev Landau Lev Davidovich Landau (; 22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. He was considered as one of the last scientists who were universally well-versed and ma ...

* Vladimir Lobashev *

* Lev Shubnikov *

Dmitri Skobeltsyn Dmitri Vladimirovich Skobeltsyn (; 24 November 1892, Saint Petersburg – 16 November 1990, Moscow) was a Soviet physicist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (1946), Hero of Socialist Labour (1969). Starting in 1923, Skobe ...

* Maksym Strikha * Yuri Trushin

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ioffe Institute Physics research institutes Research institutes in Saint Petersburg Research institutes in the Soviet Union 1918 establishments in Russia Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nuclear research institutes in Russia Nuclear technology in the Soviet Union Cultural heritage monuments in Saint Petersburg Sanctions and boycotts during the Russo-Ukrainian War